Tonight J wants to tell us about Ibtisam coming to San Francisco next April 09, and we discuss how we could get her to visit Seattle and what she might do while she is here.
Ibtisam Mahameed is a founding member of the Abrahamic Reunion. She lives in Faradis (which means Paradise), an Arab village which lies inside Israel. In 1948, Jews took the original village, which was on the beach, and the Palestinians left. Most of Ibtisam's family went to Jordan, but her mother (and others) went inland and stayed there.
Ibtisam is coming to SF because she has won special recognition from a non-profit in SF called Wisdom in Action. This group exists because the Dalai Lama wished to honor people who, through loving kindness and compassionate action, have made their communities and the world a better place. This is the third time since 2000 that these honors have been given. The 50 honorees, who come from all over the globe, receive an all-expenses-paid trip to San Francisco for a weekend. They have a dinner together, during which they get to know each other a little. And there is a lunch the following day, attended by as many as 500 people, during which they receive a special blessing from HH the Dalai Lama.
Ibtisam has created a Women's Leadership Training project in her village. J tells us that in the beginning of the training, the idea of setting a personal goal was outside the range of their thinking and awareness. Now the women all have personal goals, and many of them also have the open support of their husbands and families.
Ibtisam also initiated the Women's Tent Project, with a Jewish woman, Dorit, and they made a play about Jewish and Arab women together, which they toured to many places. One of Ibtisam's goals is to create a trauma healing center for Arab and Jewish women to try to heal their trauma together.
So why do we want her to come to Seattle? By planning some public speaking events (or maybe only one), we could raise money for her, and also encourage people to see that there is great work going on in the Middle East to help resolve the conflict, and that it is not all just hopeless. Who do we want to involve? Jewish community, Muslim community, Interfaith community, all of the above we think.
We come up with three main ideas.
Firstly, a larger public event, where Ibtisam would give a Power Point presentation about her work. We could ask for a donation at that event. We talk about various groups that we could tell about this, such as Brit Tzedek v'Shalom , which is a Jewish group that is interested in the conflict. We need to find a Muslim group to balance this. We wonder about the people from Seeds of Compassion.
Secondly, a small event where we invite all our friends to a meal and maybe we could have some music as well as eating and contributing money.
Thirdly, it would be wonderful to have her talk to some children, Jewish and Muslim, so they can see we are all just ordinary people, and we have stories and photos and we look like the people who live down the block, and we don't look like The Enemy. Will there be a video of the Ceremony in San Francisco?
J will have to talk with Ibtisam to see how she feels about doing this, and what her timetable might be like, because there are others who will want her to visit too. It is good that Ibtisam has been working on her English, she won't need a translator!
We move from the dinner table to the lounge where we say prayers for peace. It is time to leave.
